Tuesday, February 07, 2006

BIG BIRD MUST DIE

President Bush wants to cut funding for public broadcasting by more than $150 million over the next two years.

Reuters reports:
In the president's 2007 budget request, funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will be cut by $53.5 million in 2007 and $50 million more in 2008. Those cuts don't reflect others made in funding at the Education and Commerce departments and the elimination of specific programs for digital TV conversion and satellite delivery system. Public broadcasting officials estimate that the entire budget cuts run $157 million over the two-year period.
The cuts, if approved, would fund about a day of war in Iraq.

CPB has long been a target of some conservatives, who say there is no value in public broadcasting. Thankfully, most politicians in both major parties think otherwise. For now, at least. As Reuters notes:
Last year, an overwhelming majority in Congress voted to restore cuts proposed by the administration. This year, those cuts go even deeper, and it could be more difficult to win the fight in Congress, said John Lawson, president and CEO of the Association of Public Television Stations.

"We've dealt with cuts from this White House every year, but these are the deepest he's ever presented," Lawson said. "We see a clear and present danger here."
So do we.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe I'm too close to this issue, but it seems like the Republicans now threaten Public Broadcasting every three months, just for good measure.

Anonymous said...

It is important to eliminate PBS. It's part of that vast left wing conspiracy to teach children to read and think. We simply cannot have that in our new world where we create our own realities. Alternative voices? The terrorists win if we don't all conform!

You know, the Taliban does not like programming that appears on PBS. Another commonality with Republicans.